User:Cfaerber/Naming conventions (airports)
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Airports and airfields should follow the general rule of using the common name. However, determining what the common name actually is can be very difficult as usage often varies depending on who is naming the airport:
- Airlines, travel agents and passengers from other regions will often just use the name of the city.
- Local people often use the name of the actual location or the celebrity—or even just call it the airport.
- Operators sometimes use yet another name for marketing purposes.
- Local authorities may use any of the above—or an overly precise name no-one else uses.
For consistency and to facilitate linking, follow the conventions below to determine the best name. These guidelines prefer the first variant as this is what most people worldwide will be familiar with.
The full name of the airport should generally be included in the first line of the article; redirects from other variants of the name are encouraged. However, do not overdo the introduction.
If a single airports serves a city or a region[edit]
Use the name of the city or region[edit]
Convention: For a single airport serving a city or an region, the article name should be the name of that city or region, followed by the word Airport (or Airfield).
- Examples (city): Munich Airport, Sydney Airport
- Examples (region): Kansai International Airport, East Midlands Airport
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names), Wikipedia:Naming conventions (precision). There is no need to be overly precise if there is a single airport. Further, other names based on the actual location or a celebrity are often not known by people from other regions.
Redirects from alternative names or local names (e.g. Franz Josef Strauss Airport → Munich Airport, Kingsford Smith Airport → Sydney Airport) should be created when needed.
Use the names of multiple cities or regions if necessary[edit]
Convention: If a single airport serves multiple cities or regions and is commonly referred to by the name of multiple cities or areas, use both names and separate them with a hyphen ("-") unless a different punctuation character is clearly more common (e.g. space " " or slash "/").
- Examples: Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Münster-Osnabrück Airport
- Examples (different punctuation): Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Cologne/Bonn Airport, Doncaster Sheffield Airport
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names). A compound noun of the two cities is created, which usually uses the hyphenated form for clarity. However, UK usage usually prefers the open or spaced form. In some cases, a slash has become more common in English usage. This is the case if there has been a desire to make a stronger joint between the two names, to present them as alternatives or where this follows usage in foreign languages.
Redirects from names based on a single city (e.g. Baltimore Airport → Baltimore/Washington Airport) or from names using different punctuation (Cologne Bonn Airport → Cologne/Bonn Airport) should be created when needed.
For airports on islands, prefer the name of the island[edit]
Convention: For islands, use the name of the island instead of the name of the (capital) city unless the airport is clearly better known under the name of the city.
- Examples: Lanzarote Airport, Okinawa Airport, Seychelles Airport, St. Martin Airport
- Exceptions: Denpasar Airport (not commonly known as
Bali Airport)
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names). For islands, the capital city is often not recognized in other regions. Redirects from names based on the capital city are stronly encouraged (e.g. Arrecife Airport → Lanzarote Airport, Naha Airport → Okinawa Airport).
Do not blindly follow marketing[edit]
Convention: Sometimes, the name of a larger city is added to the name of an airport for marketing purposes, although the airport is located far from the city it allegedly serves. In these cases, do not include the name of the city unless this has become common usage.
- Examples (with larger city): Frankfurt Hahn Airport
- Examples (without larger city): Lydd Airport
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names).
However, redirects from the alternative names are stronly encouraged (e.g. London Ashford Airport → Lydd Airport).
If multiple airports serve a single city, area or island[edit]
Use a common disambiguator[edit]
Convention: For multiple airports serving a region, disambiguate by adding one of the following: the location of the airport (may be the name of a different city, the name of a district or borough, or the historic name of the site), the name of a celebrity the airport is officially or commonly named after, or other terms (especially the word International). Use a space (" ") to separate it from the city name unless a different punctuation character is clearly more common (e.g. en-dash "–" or slash "/").
- Examples (location): Berlin Tegel Airport (city district), London Gatwick Airport (historic name of site), London Luton Airport (other city), Tenerife North Airport (other)
- Examples (celebrity): Chicago O'Hare Airport, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport
- Examples (other): Chicago Midway Airport, Glasgow International Airport, London City Airport
- Exceptions (one airport is the main airport): Frankfurt Airport
- Exceptions (more than one disambiguator commonly used): Brussels South Charleroi Airport, Paris Beauvais Tillé Airport
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names), Wikipedia:Disambiguation. If there are multiple airports, there needs to be disambiguation—even in common usage. While local usage often removes the name of the city from the name (it is implied), this is usually not done by travel agents and passengers from other regions.
As with single airports, redirects from alternative names or local names (e.g. O'Hare Airport → Chicago O'Hare Airport, Heathrow Airport → London Heathrow Airport) should be created when needed.
Further, as people from other regions are sometimes unaware of there being multiple airports, a disambiguation page should be created at the name constructed from the name of the city, followed by Airport (e.g. at London Airport).
If an airport serves a conurbation[edit]
Convention: If an airport is located in a conurbation, the airport can be treated as one of multiple airports serving the conurbation (long variant) or as a single airport serving the city it is located at (short variant). Use the variant more common in English usage.
- Examples (long variant): Berlin Schönefeld Airport, Paris Beavis Tillé Airport, Tokyo Narita Airport
- Examples (short variant): Kobe Airport, Miami International Airport, Newark Airport
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names). The long variant is usually used by people outside the region while local people prefer the shorter one. The choice should be made based on the following considerations:
- How big is the smaller city or area? Is it large enough to deserve an airport of its own?
- Does the conurbation even have a name?
- How far is the airport from the centre of the larger city?
- Are there other major airports in the area? Are there other international airports?
- What name do peoplefrom other regions use? How is it shown on timetables and tickets?
- Is the airport actually located in the smaller city or area? Avoid combinations of three geographic names.
- What is the official name? What name is the IATA code derived from?
- Do other airports in the area use a disambiguator? Is there a common IATA code for the area and does it include the airport?.
However, none of these is a sufficient argument for one variant or the other.
Please note that there is no choice if the short variant does not include a city but the name of a celebrity, etc.
Do not use the IATA code[edit]
Convention: Do not use the IATA code to disambiguate, even though this scheme is sometimes used on timetables.
- Examples: Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, not
Paris CDG; New York John F. Kennedy Airport, notNew York JFK
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (abbreviations). The IATA code—while often used on timetables to save space—is not universally understood.
Other considerations[edit]
Using Airport, Airfield or Aerodrome[edit]
Convention: Use Airport, Airfield or Aerodrome according to common English usage. If the native name is not in English, use Airport. However, if local (non-English) usage makes a difference between larger and smaller aerodromes, use Airport for the larger variant and Airfield for the smaller one.
- Examples (non-English): Heligoland Airport (German Flughafen Helgoland), Borkum Airfield (German Flugplatz Borkum), Osaka Airport (大阪国際空港, Ōsaka Kokusai Kūkō), Nagoya Airfield (名古屋飛行場, Nagoya Hikōjō)
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names), WP:ENGVAR.
While U.S. English universally uses airport for all classes of aerodromes, British English makes a difference between airports (larger aerodromes) and airfields (smaller aerodromes), with aerodrome being the umbrella term.
As the words Airport, Airfield or Aerodrome are considered part of the proper name, they are always spelt with a capital A.
If you are not using the word Airport, always create a redirect from the variant using Airport, even if this indroduces the need for disambiguation. Trying to avoid naming conflicts by using different variations is confusing.
Using the word International[edit]
Convention: Only use the word International in front of Airport if this follows both official and common English usage. This is usually not the case for airports outside of the United States.
- Examples (U.S.): Denver International Airport
- Examples (non-U.S.): Frankfurt Airport, Singapore Airport, Vienna Airport
- Exceptions (non-U.S.): Kansai International Airport (common name), Glasgow International Airport (needed for disambiguation)
Rationale and specifics: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names).
In the U.S., the word International is often used in the name of airports because there is a large number of non-International airports. However, this is not common usage for airports located outside of the United States.
If you use the word International in the name of the article, always create a redirect from the variant omiting the term, even if this indroduces the need for disambiguation. Trying to avoid naming conflicts by using different variations is confusing.
Do not overdo the introduction[edit]
Convention: In the introduction, do not list all possible permutations and abbreviations of the airport name. If a nickname is less common, it may be put in quotes.
- Bad Examples:
Toronto Pearson International Airport, also known as Lester B. Pearson International Airport or simply Toronto Pearson (IATA: YYZ, ICAO: CYYZ), …Berlin-Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" (IATA: TXL, ICAO: EDDT) (officially known as Berlin-Tegel Airport, but often shortened to Tegel) …Sydney Airport (also known as Kingsford Smith International Airport) (IATA: SYD, ICAO: YSSY), …
- Good Examples:
Rationale: Wikipedia:lead section.
Listing too many variants clutters the first sentence and makes people wonder where to continue reading. Airports often have many different names (e.g. Munich Airport, Munich International Airport, Munich "Franz Joseph Strauss" Airport, Franz Joseph Strauss Airport, Munich International, Munich Franz Joseph Strauss), which are just abbreviations formed by omitting components from the full name. It is usually not necessary to list them as readers are able to find these obvious derivations themselves.
Furhter, historic names belong into the History section unless they are still in common use.